The Age of the Surreal Disaster

Lately, I have felt like I've been watching Hollywood-created spectacles. There is something a bit unnerving about watching things like a plane hitting a high-rise on live TV, then watching them collapse on live TV like something out of a movie scenario.

There are devastating hurricanes, horrific mega-fires, and earthquakes.

And now it's the mega-tsunami. First it was the one in 2004. Now it's Japan. I don't know about anyone else, but I found myself watching the wave footage again and again, in horrified fascination. I remember the last time I was that horribly fascinated, after the '64 Alaska quake, but we didn't have nearly instantaneous feeds.

The sheer force of the wall of water evokes disbelief, and a kind of awe. As in "shock and awe." You also realize that you're probably watching people's deaths, somewhere in the midst of all that water and debris, but they seem so small, ant-like, compared to what mom nature is pouring out on the land. We are so insignificant in this scheme.

I just hope we don't see something like a replay of the New Madrid quake anytime in near future. I don't say we will never see it, because that's just not possible. Sooner or later, a big quake will hit the Mississippi rift again. But not in our lifetimes, I would hope. Not before the area has something like earthquake codes, which are woefully lacking.

The natural disasters will always be there. Our linked in world makes everything available, instantly and up-close. I'm not sure how I feel about that.